Modern electronics are often manufactured from electrical conductors (e.g., copper) and semiconductors, primarily silicon. Semiconductor materials such as silicon have enabled construction of the complicated integrated circuits that make up the electronic devices ubiquitous in today's society. Through established semiconductor fabrication procedures billions of transistors and other electronic components can be integrated into a single microchip. One of the notable properties of silicon, and therefore these electronic devices, is physical durability.
Biodegradable electronics based on organic materials are known. See, for example, Published U.S. Patent Application No. US 2012/0223293 A1. Such devices use carbon-based electrical semiconductors and/or conductors including various conductive polymers. These organic devices can be lighter and more flexible than traditional inorganic conductors (e.g., copper) and semiconductors (e.g., silicon) but have not reached the performance levels of traditional non-organic materials and cannot be formed using the established techniques and equipment of semiconductor fabrication. Transient devices that require specialized fabrication techniques to create from traditional semiconductors such as silicon and conductor materials such as magnesium also are known. See, for example, U.S. Patent Application No. US 2013/0140649 A1.